Study on use of self medication among rural and urban people of kodad, telangana, india

Self medication is a major form of self-care. It involves the use of medicinal products by the consumer to treat self recognized disorder, symptoms, recurrent disease or minor health problems. It is independent of age for both males and females(5). Medicines for self medication are often called Over the Counter (OTC) drug, which are available without a Doctors prescription through pharmacies, mostly in the less developed countries. Recent development of the pharmaceutical companies contribute to a wide spread availability of OTC Medicine. The study was conducted in Rural and Urban areas of Kodad, Telangana state, nalgonda dist, 508206. In these areas there are several type of people for eg: some of the people are educated, some are illiteracy ,some are workers etc. The study was done in for the 200 people of different age groups of male and female. It was found that the urban people (54.74%) of male, (12%) of the female are taking self medication .In the rural people the (45.26%)of the male and (43%) of the female are taking self medication and among the educated people those who are studying ssc below they are taking self medication for about (24.21%) in male and (29.09%) are female and those who are studying 12 class (14.75%) male and (26%) of female students among the degree students in male are (58.94%) and the female are (38.18%). The students of above degree in male are about (2.10%)and (12.72%) of female students and it was seen that mostly (17.89%) of male and (10.90%) of female taking self medication for fever and for both fever and headache are (32.65%) of male and (25.26%) of female are taking self medication. For fever and acidity (10.52%)of male and (1.81%) of female are taking medication.Mostly (2.10%) of male and (3.15%) of female taking self medication for acidity and it was seen that people who are taking self medication they are using common sources of medication like pharmacy store (20%) and from grocery shop is (29.09%), and from other persons is about (27.27%). It was observed that since >5years he (75%) of the people are taking self medication and (50%) of the peoplethey are taking from 2-5 years,and (65%) of people taking self medication more than 2years. It was found that most of the people are taking self medication because of their personal convenience (45%), and also due to the long wait for check up (20%) and some of other reasons like illness is minor, lack of time, lack of money and others. It also found that (41.05%) of male and (23.63%) of female are having knowledge about the drugs, and (53.68%) of male and (74.54%) of female are not having knowledge about the drugs. It was observed that complications occurred due to self medication about (12.63%) of male and female didn’t occurred any complications and (24%) of the people given self medication to the children and (82%) of people not given self medication to their children.